Link

Twitter Announces Changes to Help Combat Hate and Harrassment

Charlotte Henry ·

Twitter is going to pay five people to work on decentralized standards for social media. They hope it will help combat hate and harassment online. CEO Jack Dorsey made the announcement in a thread on Wednesday. Wired explained what it all means for the future of social networking.

That could mean that, instead of Twitter the company having sole control over Twitter the social network, many other people could run their own versions of Twitter, in the same way that many different companies, nonprofits, and individuals run email services. You can send an email from Gmail to Yahoo, or to a server run by a mom-and-pop email provider. You can even set up your own email server at home. That’s because email is based on open standards that anyone can use. But don’t expect to set up your own Twitter tomorrow. The project is in its earliest stages. Twitter CTO Parag Agrawal is hiring the team, which will be known as “@bluesky.”

TMO Deals

PDF Search - AI-Powered Text Search Inside PDF Documents: $8.50

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on PDF Search, software that enables you to find any information in seconds within thousands of documents using Artificial Intelligence. Instead of checking only what’s in front of you, iPDF Search analyzes all pages separately and makes a relevance check for each of them according to given keywords. It’s $9.99 through our deal, but coupon code MERRYSAVE15 brings the checkout price down to $8.50. Check out the promo video below.

Link

Google’s Project Understood Aims to Help People With Down Syndrome Use Voice Technology

Andrew Orr ·

Google started an initiative called Project Understood. It’s partnering with the Canadian Down Syndrome Society to ask people with Down syndrome help train its voice recognition algorithms to understand them better.

“Out of the box, Google’s speech recognizer would not recognize every third word for a person with Down syndrome, and that makes the technology not very usable,” Google engineer Jimmy Tobin said in a video introducing the project. Google is aiming to collect 500 “donations” of voice recordings from people with Down syndrome, and is already more than halfway toward its goal.

A worthy project.

Link

AT&T Raises Price of DirecTV Again

Andrew Orr ·

Despite losing millions of customers the last time it did this, AT&T decided to once again raise the price of DirecTV. Monthly rates will increase by US$8/mo starting on January 19, 2020.

The $8-per-month increase will apply to the DirecTV Premier plan that currently costs $189. A $7 increase will apply to the Ultimate package that costs $135 and to the Xtra package that costs $124; a $5 increase will apply to the Choice plan that costs $110; a $4 increase will apply to the Select package that costs $81 a month and to the Entertainment package that costs $93; and increases of $1 or $3 will apply to basic plans.

Link

Analyst Predicts Six New iPhone Models

Charlotte Henry ·

Speculation about the 2020 iPhone is growing. In an investors note seen by AppleInsider, Rosenblatt Securities analyst Jun Zhang predicted specs for six different models.

For the “iPhone 12” range, Zhang expects there to be a far wider array of models to choose from than Apple has ever offered before, in part due to the introduction of 5G The analyst’s model predictions include: iPhone 12 4G with a 6.1-inch LCD screen and dual rear cameras, iPhone 12 Pro 4G with a 5.4-inch OLED screen and dual rear cameras, iPhone 12 Pro 5G with a 5.4-inch OLED display and dual rear cameras, iPhone 12 Pro Plus 4G with a 6.1-inch OLED display and a triple rear camera with Time-of-Flight 3D sensing capabilities, iPhone 12 Pro Plus 5G using a 6.1-inch OLED screen, triple camera setup, and ToF features, iPhone 12 Pro Max 5G with a 6.1-inch OLED panel, the triple camera setup, and ToF. To further complicate matters, Zhang also suggests the “iPhone 12” Pro 5G could be offered in variants supporting sub-6GHz only or adding mmWave compatibility.

Link

How to Call Your Legislators With a Shortcut

Andrew Orr ·

Matthew Cassinelli was part of the team that created Workflow, which Apple acquired and turned into the Shortcuts app. He recently created a shortcut that lets you enter your zip code and automatically call your legislators.

Hello. You can use this tool to immediately call your senator/representative based on your ZIP code. Contact them now.

Link

Apple TV+ Bosses Reflect on Golden Globes Nominations

Charlotte Henry ·

This week, Apple celebrated  Apple TV+ flagship The Morning Show receiving three Golden Globes nominations. Deadline spoke to the company’s heads of world video – Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg about what it all means.

“Honestly we had really mitigated expectations because no streamer has ever received nominations in any significant categories the first year, it took minimum two years before they got traction to get nominations,” Jamie Erlicht, Apple’s head of Worldwide Video, said. “We expected that it would be very hard to do, but we also had to believe in the quality of our shows and that if anyone had a chance to get early awards recognition, Apple TV+ would be one to do it. It’s been validating what we knew, that we had something special here.” Added Apple’s fellow head of Worldwide Video Zack Van Amburg, “After the debut of Apple TV+ just last month, today’s nominations are a true testament to the powerful storytelling that went into The Morning Show, as well as all of our Apple Originals.”

Link

Twitter Will Stop Transcoding JPEG Images Which Lowered Quality

Andrew Orr ·

Twitter engineer Nolan O’Brien said that Twitter will preserve JPEGs as they are uploaded. This means that uploaded images will retain their original quality.

It’s a small change that has the potential to make a big difference to the way photographers view and use the platform. Nolan’s thread has inevitably kick-started a conversation about plans for other image formats and user-requested changes, so Twitter could make itself even more photo-friendly soon.

Another interesting note is that Twitter automatically strips EXIF data from photos, which I didn’t know. This is nice because this metadata can contain private information, such as where the photo was shot.

TMO Deals

HUB Hi-Fi Wireless Noise Cancelling Earbuds: $60

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on HUB, a set of wireless, noise cancelling earbuds. They offer up to 8 hours of playback time on a single charge, with the charging case capable of charging another 100 hours of playback time. And, you can use the charging case to charge your other devices, too. They also feature Bluetooth 5.0, and they’re rated as IPX5 waterproof, which means they can resist a sustained, low-pressure water jet spray. They’re $74.99 through our deal, but coupon code GREENMONDAY20 brings the price down to $60.

Steam Game Terraforming Mars Heads to iOS
Cool Stuff Found

Steam Game Terraforming Mars Heads to iOS

Andrew Orr ·

Terraforming Mars, a Steam game that was previously only available for PCs, has made its way to iOS. It’s a strategy game in which players try to terraform Mars to make it habitable. You play as a corporation, and each one has a different specialization, like metal, heavy industry, financier, biotech, or energy. You work together with other corporations in the terraforming process, and compete to get points based on your contributions. You can play solo with AI opponents or online with humans. It requires a minimum of iOS 10 to download. App Store: US$8.99

Link

Senator Lindsey Graham to ‘Impose His Will’ on Encryption Backdoors

Andrew Orr ·

Apple and Facebook representatives met with lawmakers today where senators pushed for the companies to compromise their users’ security by including encryption backdoors. In particular, Sen. Lindsey Graham said:

My advice to you is to get on with it. Because this time next year, if we haven’t found a way that you can live with, we will impose our will on you.

“Encryption backdoors for thee, but not for me.”

Link

EU Regulators Set to Get Tougher With Big Tech in 2020

Charlotte Henry ·

Throughout 2019, EU Lawmakers have regularly look at antitrust issues around so-called Big Tech. Reuters reported that they are likely to increase those efforts in 2020.

EU antitrust regulators are considering taking a tougher line against tech giants by forcing them to do more to ensure a level playing field, a senior European Commission official said on Tuesday, a move which could affect Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google. The four U.S. tech companies are currently in EU competition enforcers’ crosshairs, with rivals complaining about being shut out of key markets. The Commission has traditionally ordered companies to halt anti-competitive practices.

Link

How Facebook's Libra Could Take on WeChat in China

Charlotte Henry ·

There has been much talk about Facebook-backed cryptocurrency Libra. Much of that has focussed on the effect in Western markets. However, Wired noted it could be a significant player in China.

In China, the vast majority of consumer commerce runs on WeChat, which has transitioned from a simple chat app to a platform for just about everything. Most of the rest of the world lacks this kind of fully integrated experience, which is hugely valuable to the platform, but also a great experience for consumers: the convenience, access and range of available services is unparalleled. Of course, the key to offering a fully-baked platform like this is scale, and Facebook has that in spades. The company has leveraged that scale time and again to launch new products to great success, even in cases where it lacks a first mover advantage. With Libra’s initial integration across WhatsApp and Messenger – and eventually, likely also Instagram – it could instantly be ready for use by billions.